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on January 20, 2013
All Michael Lewis' books are good, but this is his best so far. Having ably covered the 2008 Wall Street financial crash, Lewis now turns to "the new third world," his term for advanced economies that recently bankrupted themselves in irresponsible ways once thought to be restricted to basket-case third-world nations. Lewis shows once again why he is our best explainer of the rarified world of high finance. Boomerang seems like a short modern version of Charles Mackay's classic Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds / with facsimile title pages and reproductions of original illustrations from the editions of 1841 and 1852. With a foreword by Bernard M. Baruch
Lewis visits Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany, and finally California. In each case, he describes with wit and insight the human foibles that drove otherwise smart people to financial suicide. In Lewis' view, each nation's troubles are a combination of unique national character and politics, and a common thread of human weakness. This is not the complete or definitive story, but it is illuminating none the less. His conclusions are both greatly entertaining and highly disturbing. You should read this book.
Lewis visits Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany, and finally California. In each case, he describes with wit and insight the human foibles that drove otherwise smart people to financial suicide. In Lewis' view, each nation's troubles are a combination of unique national character and politics, and a common thread of human weakness. This is not the complete or definitive story, but it is illuminating none the less. His conclusions are both greatly entertaining and highly disturbing. You should read this book.
on March 31, 2012
There is little else you can consider this book than a warning shot across the bow of the modern West. Where are we headed? According to Michael Lewis, to third world status. And like most places we want to get to, we're in a hurry to get there.
The problem the author outlines is two-fold. First, we've focused power into a smaller and smaller set of experts (because we've truly come to believe that either you're an expert, or you have no right to speak at all), in the name of increasing efficiency. The problem is that efficiency isn't an ultimate good unto itself. Efficiency must serve some greater master.
Efficiency in the financial markets has created an uncontrollable beast --for efficiency in the financial markets simply means to trade money so fast that only a small number of people can actually keep up. That small number of people become infinitely wealthy on the backs of those who aren't experts. Efficiency, in the financial markets, turns out to be finding the most efficient way to transfer wealth from the uninformed into the hands of the informed.
The second problem Mr. Lewis points out is that along the way to bringing ourselves every conceivable pleasure, we've changed as people.
==
Even if it is technically possible for these people to repay their debts, live within their means, and return to good standing inside the European Union, do they have the inner resources to do it? Or have they so lost their ability to feel connected to anything outside their small worlds that they would rather just shed the obligations? -Page 82
==
The author blames this on our evolutionary past --but the truth is far closer to what the Scriptures say is true about people than what evolution says.
==
We are set up to acquire as much as we can of things we perceive as scarce, particularly sex, safety, and food." ... The effect on the brain of lots of instant gratification is something like the effect on the right hand of cutting off the left: the more the lizard core is used the more dominant it becomes. "What we're doing is minimizing the use of the part of the brain that lizards don't have," says Whybrow. "We've created physiological dysfunction. We have lost the ability to self-regulate, at all levels of the society." -Page 204
==
According to evolution, we have nothing but a "lizard brain;" there is simply no way for this "other brain," the one that self-regulates to exist. So what we face here is a spiritual condition, a condition the Bible clearly describes --Paul wishing he could stop doing what he knows is wrong. We're all Eve in the Garden, deciding between eating the apple because "it's good for food, and it's beautiful, and it's good for gaining knowledge," and doing what God has told us to do.
And we each, every one, fail the test every day.
A sobering look at what market efficiency can gain when it unleashes the human animal.
The problem the author outlines is two-fold. First, we've focused power into a smaller and smaller set of experts (because we've truly come to believe that either you're an expert, or you have no right to speak at all), in the name of increasing efficiency. The problem is that efficiency isn't an ultimate good unto itself. Efficiency must serve some greater master.
Efficiency in the financial markets has created an uncontrollable beast --for efficiency in the financial markets simply means to trade money so fast that only a small number of people can actually keep up. That small number of people become infinitely wealthy on the backs of those who aren't experts. Efficiency, in the financial markets, turns out to be finding the most efficient way to transfer wealth from the uninformed into the hands of the informed.
The second problem Mr. Lewis points out is that along the way to bringing ourselves every conceivable pleasure, we've changed as people.
==
Even if it is technically possible for these people to repay their debts, live within their means, and return to good standing inside the European Union, do they have the inner resources to do it? Or have they so lost their ability to feel connected to anything outside their small worlds that they would rather just shed the obligations? -Page 82
==
The author blames this on our evolutionary past --but the truth is far closer to what the Scriptures say is true about people than what evolution says.
==
We are set up to acquire as much as we can of things we perceive as scarce, particularly sex, safety, and food." ... The effect on the brain of lots of instant gratification is something like the effect on the right hand of cutting off the left: the more the lizard core is used the more dominant it becomes. "What we're doing is minimizing the use of the part of the brain that lizards don't have," says Whybrow. "We've created physiological dysfunction. We have lost the ability to self-regulate, at all levels of the society." -Page 204
==
According to evolution, we have nothing but a "lizard brain;" there is simply no way for this "other brain," the one that self-regulates to exist. So what we face here is a spiritual condition, a condition the Bible clearly describes --Paul wishing he could stop doing what he knows is wrong. We're all Eve in the Garden, deciding between eating the apple because "it's good for food, and it's beautiful, and it's good for gaining knowledge," and doing what God has told us to do.
And we each, every one, fail the test every day.
A sobering look at what market efficiency can gain when it unleashes the human animal.
on March 3, 2013
Michael Lewis has had an unusual career, starting as a Wall Streeter, than transitioning from financial reporting such as Liars Poker to non-fiction like the Blind Side. Here he has made another step, becoming the first financial crisis tourist. This reminds me a bit of Art Buchwald's adventures of the 1950's, writing for the Herald Tribune in Paris, he undertook a trip to Russia in an oversized American car and produced a timeless column on explaining the US tradition of Thanksgiving to the French.
In Boomerang, Lewis sets out by plane, car, and train to meet the people behind the financial crisis. He heads off for Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Germany, and California. We meet Prime Ministers, poets, fishermen, egg-throwers, down on their luck property developers, and bankers. In retrospect no one seems to know why anyone thought it sane to develop some of the world's largest investment banks on a remote fishing island of 300,000 or why millions of non-Irish would return to Ireland and buy million dollar homes. Probably the best analysis in here is why the Germans plan to economically dominate the euro-zone resulting in a taxpayer bailout. In almost every case the Germans were patsies, if you look at the bondholders of failed Irish banks and owners of bad US sub-prime paper the address is always in Germany. In the last chapter Lewis ties it back to the US. He goes on a harrowing bike ride with the former Governator and learns that no one knows or cares that the municipalities are the weak link in the US system. Some are on their way to providing no services except payrolling retiree benefits that the courts will require them to pay even in bankruptcy.
Lewis takes a short turn as a Andy Rooney type social commentator and fails to explain why any of this really happened. Combination of greed, stupidity, and lack of controls but that does not tell you why it occurred where it did.
In Boomerang, Lewis sets out by plane, car, and train to meet the people behind the financial crisis. He heads off for Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Germany, and California. We meet Prime Ministers, poets, fishermen, egg-throwers, down on their luck property developers, and bankers. In retrospect no one seems to know why anyone thought it sane to develop some of the world's largest investment banks on a remote fishing island of 300,000 or why millions of non-Irish would return to Ireland and buy million dollar homes. Probably the best analysis in here is why the Germans plan to economically dominate the euro-zone resulting in a taxpayer bailout. In almost every case the Germans were patsies, if you look at the bondholders of failed Irish banks and owners of bad US sub-prime paper the address is always in Germany. In the last chapter Lewis ties it back to the US. He goes on a harrowing bike ride with the former Governator and learns that no one knows or cares that the municipalities are the weak link in the US system. Some are on their way to providing no services except payrolling retiree benefits that the courts will require them to pay even in bankruptcy.
Lewis takes a short turn as a Andy Rooney type social commentator and fails to explain why any of this really happened. Combination of greed, stupidity, and lack of controls but that does not tell you why it occurred where it did.
on February 19, 2012
My main issue with this book is that it uses good writing to cover up thinness of analysis. Germans behave as they do because of a national trait, and people in Iceland are really just destined to be fishermen? It would be interesting to see how such "insight" would be applied to nations in Africa and Asia, where such heavy-handedness is quickly recognized for the stereotyping that it is.
This is another example of how public intellectualism has glaring blind spots once you step outside it: The editors of Vanity Fair, who are responsible for much of the polish in this book, probably don't have the same sensitivity toward profiling when it's not aimed at a politically correct group. It's still profiling, and it leads to a book that's intellectually lacking and prefers the lazy generalization to the true observation.
This is another example of how public intellectualism has glaring blind spots once you step outside it: The editors of Vanity Fair, who are responsible for much of the polish in this book, probably don't have the same sensitivity toward profiling when it's not aimed at a politically correct group. It's still profiling, and it leads to a book that's intellectually lacking and prefers the lazy generalization to the true observation.
on March 5, 2012
Book Review of "Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World"
By Michael Lewis
Review by Jordan Hedberg
- Summery of the Book's Main Points
Causation is a tricky subject for humans. Vast amounts of energy and resources are poured into trying to understand the cause of every societal problem. What causes Cancer? Or the success of Apple Inc? People have an insatiable need to establish a narrative regarding cause and effect. When causation meets complex systems such as the global economy, the causes of an event is often hard to separate from the effects. Michael Lewis attempts to ascertain why the global economy is drowning itself in debt and discovers that individual people and societies are the root cause.
The book takes the reader through many of the key nations that are currently the focus of the European credit crisis and establishes events from a personal perspective. Starting with existing stereotypes, Lewis explores why many generalizations regarding different nationalities exist. Continuing with his journey he explores why certain cultures react differently when faced with insurmountable financial problems. The answers and contradictions that Lewis encounters surprise and baffle him. Striving to understand the issue of debt, banks, and markets, Lewis travels back to the United States to search for the beginnings of traditional "European" issues in America. In the end, he discovers certain truths that most American citizens refuse to accept or simply ignore.
-Thoughts & Rating
During the first few chapters of the book I was concerned that Mr. Lewis was going to only discuss the stereotypical traits of European populations. However, Mr. Lewis begins to reveal his thought process and dives into economic problems from a societal viewpoint. It was interesting to see how he moved about in the different European nations and interactions he was able to schedule. Once again, Lewis shows the reader a point of view not captured by main-stream media.
It is hard for me to voice any criticisms because Mr. Lewis's message is so powerful. The only part of the book that I wanted more information on was his brief discussion on neurobiology and human interactions regarding society. However, there are plenty of good books regarding behavioral science and neurobiology in relation to society. This book is a must read for everyone because it breaks through the political garbage that fills the media and bookshelves.
5 out of 5
By Michael Lewis
Review by Jordan Hedberg
- Summery of the Book's Main Points
Causation is a tricky subject for humans. Vast amounts of energy and resources are poured into trying to understand the cause of every societal problem. What causes Cancer? Or the success of Apple Inc? People have an insatiable need to establish a narrative regarding cause and effect. When causation meets complex systems such as the global economy, the causes of an event is often hard to separate from the effects. Michael Lewis attempts to ascertain why the global economy is drowning itself in debt and discovers that individual people and societies are the root cause.
The book takes the reader through many of the key nations that are currently the focus of the European credit crisis and establishes events from a personal perspective. Starting with existing stereotypes, Lewis explores why many generalizations regarding different nationalities exist. Continuing with his journey he explores why certain cultures react differently when faced with insurmountable financial problems. The answers and contradictions that Lewis encounters surprise and baffle him. Striving to understand the issue of debt, banks, and markets, Lewis travels back to the United States to search for the beginnings of traditional "European" issues in America. In the end, he discovers certain truths that most American citizens refuse to accept or simply ignore.
-Thoughts & Rating
During the first few chapters of the book I was concerned that Mr. Lewis was going to only discuss the stereotypical traits of European populations. However, Mr. Lewis begins to reveal his thought process and dives into economic problems from a societal viewpoint. It was interesting to see how he moved about in the different European nations and interactions he was able to schedule. Once again, Lewis shows the reader a point of view not captured by main-stream media.
It is hard for me to voice any criticisms because Mr. Lewis's message is so powerful. The only part of the book that I wanted more information on was his brief discussion on neurobiology and human interactions regarding society. However, there are plenty of good books regarding behavioral science and neurobiology in relation to society. This book is a must read for everyone because it breaks through the political garbage that fills the media and bookshelves.
5 out of 5
on December 20, 2011
This is the first Lewis book I've read and found it very light reading. It was a nice combination of stories and facts that drove home reasons for the economic crisis that countries find themselves in today. I don't have a problem with the fact that the articles can be found for free on a website. I was willing to pay the $10 to download the book and have the information in one place.
Boomerang explores five countries' experience with sovereign debt. This book is an easy and entertaining read because amusing anecdotal evidence is used to support the reasons behind each country's economic difficulty. From the twenty million nickels bought as a hedge against economic collapse to the exploding cars for insurance purposes, Lewis provides some great examples that illustrate the economic conditions countries find themselves.
The book starts with a visit to Kyle Bass, a hedge fund manager who financially benefitted from the 2008 collapse. Bass has a large inventory of gold and precious metals and has now turned his attention to nickel by buying one million dollars worth, 20 million nickels. Bass' view on current economic suffering is an atonement for Wall Street's behavior.
Lewis then moves on to Iceland where "When their three brand-new global-size banks collapsed, Iceland's 300,000 citizens found that they bore some kind of responsibility for $100 billion in banking losses--which works out to roughly $330,000 for every Icelandic man, woman, and child." Lewis goes further in describing the billions lost in currency speculation and the 85% collapse of Iceland's stock market to result in unknowable amount of loss for the average Icelander. Lewis sets up an exploding vehicle syndrome with this description of the financial state Icelanders found themselves in. "Now many Icelanders--especially young Icelanders--own $500,000 houses with $1.5 million mortgages, and $35,000 Range Rovers with $100,000 in loans against them. To the Range Rover problem there are two immediate solutions. One is to put it on a boat, ship it to Europe, and try to sell it for a currency that still has value. The other is set it on fire and collect the insurance: Boom!"
Boomerang leaves us with an Iceland that has its Krona being a shadow of the peak period, a lamp that was out of stock now costs three times the amount before the crash, its work force ill-suited for the endowment it has, and insufficient political acumen to get it out of its predicament. The latest report on Iceland however, is that it is one of the bright lights in the economic recovery with 3% GDP growth. Iceland let its banks default and have deleveraged and returned to economic growth, something a small country can do without jeopardizing the world financial system.
Lewis then moves onto Greece, the next stop on this tour of economic devastation. The explanation of Greece's debt comes from its culture, government spending without revenue collection. Lewis does a good job of annotating the level of ridiculousness Greece's public sector has come to "The average government job pays almost three times the average private-sector job." And "Stefanos Manos pointed out that it would be cheaper to put all Greece's rail passengers into taxicabs" are two examples of the state of Greek public spending.
While in Greece, Lewis stays at the Vatopaidi monastery, the soul of corruption for this country. The monastery had fallen into disrepair but Father Ephraim uses three prongs to rebuild: relationships with the rich, international outreach, and real estate which provides the most interesting story of the Greek experience. Father Ephraim and others turn an ancient deed and a worthless lake into millions or even billions of dollars.
Ireland is the next stop on this tour where the Anglo Irish bank looses 34 billion Euros or $3.4 trillion in the crisis. Total Irish bank losses tally to 106 billion Euros or $10.6 trillion. Lewis explains "The Irish budget deficit--in 2007 the country had a budget surplus--is now 32 percent of its GDP, the highest by far in the history of the euro zone." Lewis does a great job in contrasting where Ireland has come from and what it has achieved only to be set back by the greed of the finance industry. "In late 2006 the unemployment rate stood at a bit more than 4 percent; now it's 14 percent, and climbing toward rates not experienced since the mid-1980s."
Before leaving Europe, Lewis describes Germany's role in the economic crisis. German's are described as trusting American financial statements as reliable and therefore suffered by investing in them. The German bank IKB became Wall Street's best customer. IKB hired Dirk Rothig, someone with financial experience in the States, to do something new and unusual for the bank. Rothig invented something called a conduit which grew the IKB portfolio from $10 billion in 2005 to $20 billion in 2007, according to Rothig. IKB ended up losing $15 billion on US subprime loans.
The last stop on this tour of economic disaster comes back to the U.S. where Lewis looks at a 60 Minutes interview of Merideth Whitney and her analysis of the financial condition of State debt. Whitney doesn't think the States will have a problem because they can transfer their debt to the counties and the cities. This is where Lewis spends his last stop, analyzing a city in the worst financial condition in the States, Vallejo California. In Vallejo, businesses post "WE ACCEPT FOOD STAMPS" on their windows, weeds surround abandoned businesses, and traffic lights permanently blink since there are no police in the streets. Real estate in Vallejo fell 66% between 2006 and 2010. The main cause for this city's woes were public safety wage contracts that resulted in bankruptcy.
Lewis concludes this trip with comments about human nature and the lack of forethought for everything from obesity to gambling, drug and alcohol addiction, and of course personal indebtedness. "Americans sacrifice their long-term interests for a short-term reward." This describes the underlying problem with the world economy today.
Boomerang explores five countries' experience with sovereign debt. This book is an easy and entertaining read because amusing anecdotal evidence is used to support the reasons behind each country's economic difficulty. From the twenty million nickels bought as a hedge against economic collapse to the exploding cars for insurance purposes, Lewis provides some great examples that illustrate the economic conditions countries find themselves.
The book starts with a visit to Kyle Bass, a hedge fund manager who financially benefitted from the 2008 collapse. Bass has a large inventory of gold and precious metals and has now turned his attention to nickel by buying one million dollars worth, 20 million nickels. Bass' view on current economic suffering is an atonement for Wall Street's behavior.
Lewis then moves on to Iceland where "When their three brand-new global-size banks collapsed, Iceland's 300,000 citizens found that they bore some kind of responsibility for $100 billion in banking losses--which works out to roughly $330,000 for every Icelandic man, woman, and child." Lewis goes further in describing the billions lost in currency speculation and the 85% collapse of Iceland's stock market to result in unknowable amount of loss for the average Icelander. Lewis sets up an exploding vehicle syndrome with this description of the financial state Icelanders found themselves in. "Now many Icelanders--especially young Icelanders--own $500,000 houses with $1.5 million mortgages, and $35,000 Range Rovers with $100,000 in loans against them. To the Range Rover problem there are two immediate solutions. One is to put it on a boat, ship it to Europe, and try to sell it for a currency that still has value. The other is set it on fire and collect the insurance: Boom!"
Boomerang leaves us with an Iceland that has its Krona being a shadow of the peak period, a lamp that was out of stock now costs three times the amount before the crash, its work force ill-suited for the endowment it has, and insufficient political acumen to get it out of its predicament. The latest report on Iceland however, is that it is one of the bright lights in the economic recovery with 3% GDP growth. Iceland let its banks default and have deleveraged and returned to economic growth, something a small country can do without jeopardizing the world financial system.
Lewis then moves onto Greece, the next stop on this tour of economic devastation. The explanation of Greece's debt comes from its culture, government spending without revenue collection. Lewis does a good job of annotating the level of ridiculousness Greece's public sector has come to "The average government job pays almost three times the average private-sector job." And "Stefanos Manos pointed out that it would be cheaper to put all Greece's rail passengers into taxicabs" are two examples of the state of Greek public spending.
While in Greece, Lewis stays at the Vatopaidi monastery, the soul of corruption for this country. The monastery had fallen into disrepair but Father Ephraim uses three prongs to rebuild: relationships with the rich, international outreach, and real estate which provides the most interesting story of the Greek experience. Father Ephraim and others turn an ancient deed and a worthless lake into millions or even billions of dollars.
Ireland is the next stop on this tour where the Anglo Irish bank looses 34 billion Euros or $3.4 trillion in the crisis. Total Irish bank losses tally to 106 billion Euros or $10.6 trillion. Lewis explains "The Irish budget deficit--in 2007 the country had a budget surplus--is now 32 percent of its GDP, the highest by far in the history of the euro zone." Lewis does a great job in contrasting where Ireland has come from and what it has achieved only to be set back by the greed of the finance industry. "In late 2006 the unemployment rate stood at a bit more than 4 percent; now it's 14 percent, and climbing toward rates not experienced since the mid-1980s."
Before leaving Europe, Lewis describes Germany's role in the economic crisis. German's are described as trusting American financial statements as reliable and therefore suffered by investing in them. The German bank IKB became Wall Street's best customer. IKB hired Dirk Rothig, someone with financial experience in the States, to do something new and unusual for the bank. Rothig invented something called a conduit which grew the IKB portfolio from $10 billion in 2005 to $20 billion in 2007, according to Rothig. IKB ended up losing $15 billion on US subprime loans.
The last stop on this tour of economic disaster comes back to the U.S. where Lewis looks at a 60 Minutes interview of Merideth Whitney and her analysis of the financial condition of State debt. Whitney doesn't think the States will have a problem because they can transfer their debt to the counties and the cities. This is where Lewis spends his last stop, analyzing a city in the worst financial condition in the States, Vallejo California. In Vallejo, businesses post "WE ACCEPT FOOD STAMPS" on their windows, weeds surround abandoned businesses, and traffic lights permanently blink since there are no police in the streets. Real estate in Vallejo fell 66% between 2006 and 2010. The main cause for this city's woes were public safety wage contracts that resulted in bankruptcy.
Lewis concludes this trip with comments about human nature and the lack of forethought for everything from obesity to gambling, drug and alcohol addiction, and of course personal indebtedness. "Americans sacrifice their long-term interests for a short-term reward." This describes the underlying problem with the world economy today.
on December 30, 2011
I've generally ignored the mainstream media during the original US financial crisis and the more recent European financial crisis. My lack of interest in mainstream media (TV, newspaper, and magazines) - especially about non-tech related stuff - is well known. The last domino to fall was when I finally stopped listening to NPR a few years ago. I view the signal to noise ratio as terrible, I don't believe most of the information, I often think the people talking have no clue what they are talking about, and as many things unfold in real time, the people involved have no idea what's actually going on. Oh - and it's part of the macro that - while it certainly impacts me, doesn't directly affect me, nor is there anything I can do about it. So I ignore it and instead focus on things I can make an impact on.
But I like to read and learn from history. There are a number of writers who I think do a magnificent job of writing in different areas - for example Walter Issacson on Biography and Michael Lewis on Financial History. So I was excited when Lewis' new book, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World, came out about the European financial crisis. I read it last night after we had dinner with some good friends who we hadn't seen in a while.
It was awesome and kept me up well past my normal bedtime. Lewis writes like a novelist so his story completely sucks you in. In the case of Boomerang, he added in a travelogue component and went to each of the countries he wrote about. The book starts in Dallas, takes us to Iceland, to Greece, to Ireland, to Germany, and finally back to the California. Lewis covers both what happened, what's happening, what could happen, and why in a book that gave me more history, context, facts, and personalities than watching hundreds of hours of CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg or reading the Wall Street Journal and New York TImes daily could have. And I trust his synthesis - it feels very agenda-less and is written clearly from his point of view.
If you want to understand what is going on in Europe, especially Greece, Ireland, and Germany, how it happened, why it matters, and where it might go, read this book. And if you just are curious and want a good "real life is better than fiction" kind of read, you can get that also from Boomerang.
But I like to read and learn from history. There are a number of writers who I think do a magnificent job of writing in different areas - for example Walter Issacson on Biography and Michael Lewis on Financial History. So I was excited when Lewis' new book, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World, came out about the European financial crisis. I read it last night after we had dinner with some good friends who we hadn't seen in a while.
It was awesome and kept me up well past my normal bedtime. Lewis writes like a novelist so his story completely sucks you in. In the case of Boomerang, he added in a travelogue component and went to each of the countries he wrote about. The book starts in Dallas, takes us to Iceland, to Greece, to Ireland, to Germany, and finally back to the California. Lewis covers both what happened, what's happening, what could happen, and why in a book that gave me more history, context, facts, and personalities than watching hundreds of hours of CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg or reading the Wall Street Journal and New York TImes daily could have. And I trust his synthesis - it feels very agenda-less and is written clearly from his point of view.
If you want to understand what is going on in Europe, especially Greece, Ireland, and Germany, how it happened, why it matters, and where it might go, read this book. And if you just are curious and want a good "real life is better than fiction" kind of read, you can get that also from Boomerang.
on November 27, 2012
In Michael Lewis new book he captures the global financial insanity that gripped so many countries. He goes on a financial tour to a number of countries to discover why their economy collapsed or how they avoided financial catastrophe. Lewis writes with a travel writer's flair for the idiosyncrasies of each country. Boomerang is filled with compelling information about each country he explores. Here are some examples.
Iceland fisherman became investment bankers and quickly threw Iceland into terrible investments, bankrupting the banks and the country.
In Greece the culture of everyone being on the dole as well as the endemic tax fraud and lack of tax revenue sank the country and the banks and not the other way around. The Greece government officials make incredible salaries. The incredible amount of government workers can retire as young as 45 and so on. The rich and corporations pay no taxes. In fact, no one pays taxes, not because of the laws but because of lack of enforcement.
In Ireland, there was a cheap and easy credit bringing on an insane housing boom and then, of course, a bust and now bankrupt banks.
The German people did not take the easy and cheap credit. The banks were not perfect and one particularly bank made some terrible mistakes and got sucked into the U.S. prime mortgage mess. But Germany are in excellent shape and now are being pushed to bail out the rest of Europe.
Lewis touches on the U.S., particularly cities and the high costs of pensions and the ability to sustain paying retired workers a pension that is similar to what they made while working or similar.
This is a great read with lots of very interesting anecdotes and people and fascinating cultural color. The German fascination with poop being one of the most odd.
Iceland fisherman became investment bankers and quickly threw Iceland into terrible investments, bankrupting the banks and the country.
In Greece the culture of everyone being on the dole as well as the endemic tax fraud and lack of tax revenue sank the country and the banks and not the other way around. The Greece government officials make incredible salaries. The incredible amount of government workers can retire as young as 45 and so on. The rich and corporations pay no taxes. In fact, no one pays taxes, not because of the laws but because of lack of enforcement.
In Ireland, there was a cheap and easy credit bringing on an insane housing boom and then, of course, a bust and now bankrupt banks.
The German people did not take the easy and cheap credit. The banks were not perfect and one particularly bank made some terrible mistakes and got sucked into the U.S. prime mortgage mess. But Germany are in excellent shape and now are being pushed to bail out the rest of Europe.
Lewis touches on the U.S., particularly cities and the high costs of pensions and the ability to sustain paying retired workers a pension that is similar to what they made while working or similar.
This is a great read with lots of very interesting anecdotes and people and fascinating cultural color. The German fascination with poop being one of the most odd.
